The inventive concepts described herein relate to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, relate to a memory system including a magnetic random access memory device and a control method thereof.
A semiconductor memory device may be volatile or nonvolatile. A volatile memory device may have rapid read and write speeds, while contents stored in the volatile memory device may be lost at power-off. On the other hand, a nonvolatile memory device may retain contents stored therein even at power-off. Thus, the nonvolatile memory device may be used to store contents which must be retained regardless of whether a power is supplied or not.
In recent years, the demand for high-integration and large-volume nonvolatile memory devices has increased and is likely to increase further. For example, such a representative memory device may be a flash memory device, which is mainly used within a handheld electronic device. There is ongoing research in connection with nonvolatile elements that have a high integration, a large volume, and a random access function.
A magnetic random access memory (MRAM) using a magnetic element is one example of such nonvolatile elements. The MRAM possesses advantageous characteristics such as rapid operating speed and high integration. For this reason, active research on the commercialization of the MRAM continues.